


Nightmares

by nvzumii



Series: Solangelo One-Shots and Drabbles [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Bad Dreams, Boys Kissing, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Kissing, M/M, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace Fluff, Nightmares, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, lots of fluff, solangelo, will is a good boyfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 10:46:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18386870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nvzumii/pseuds/nvzumii
Summary: Nico finds himself unable to sleep after the war with Gaea. The nightmares are consuming him like they once did after his sister, Bianca died. But he's back safe at Camp Half-Blood, and he has his boyfriend to keep him company when it becomes too much.





	Nightmares

The thing about nightmares is that they always find a way to blur the lines between reality. 

They make running through the forests of camp in the dead of night feel real. Like you're actually being chased down by flesh-eating harpies.

They make watching the death of your own mother on a constant loop, seeing the contentment in her face just before the building shatters into a million pieces along with your heart, every direction, leaves a permanent mark on your soul. 

They remind you of the times when you were on the verge of collapse, never ceasing in their efforts to make spending nights in your cabin feel worse than being trapped in Tartarus.

 Having bad dreams as a child of Hades is especially difficult. 

It seems as if every time your eyes shut, you see your father's domain. Can reach out and touch the trillions of lost souls traveling to their permanent residencies, feel their pain as if it were your own, sometimes hear their cries after the panel of judges decide whether the afterlife is going to be a place of paradise, or worse than hell. Watching the fates cut yet another string of life, praying to any listening god or goddess that the next life they take isn't someone else you hold dear to your heart. Staring out into the depths of Tartarus, feeling as if a part of you is still down there amongst the monsters and demons.  

The first couple nights back at camp after defeating Gaea and her forces bring a complete change of scenery.

Nico finds comfort in Hazel. He sleeps next to her while she's at Camp Half-Blood, lets her small hands reassure him in small strokes of his back, the same way his mother would do whenever he or Bianca had a bad dream or just felt scared in general. 

He actually manages to adjust to his consistent sleep schedule, enjoying the way he wakes before ten, actually looking forward to the days that lay ahead. 

Once Hazel leaves with the rest of the Romans back to the West Coast, however, Nico falls back into a too familiar routine of restless limbs and all-nighters.

Nico's face grows paler with each passing day, his limbs growing weaker and weaker from the lack of sleep. 

He would go to Will, but he 's busy as is working as the camp's medic, and adding Nico's problems to his own didn't seem fair in the least. So he resulted to taking in the lectures and concern looks from his boyfriend. 

One day, Will offers to let him try and sleep in one of the empty infirmary beds to see if being somewhere with more light will lessen the nightmares. 

 It works for a little while, which Nico is grateful for. But he jolts up from the bed a few hours later, sweat dripping from his forehead.

 Will runs over to him, wrapping his strong arms around the son of Hades and allows him to hide in the crook of his neck while he regains a sense of where he is. 

"You're here, you're in the infirmary. I'm here with you. Nothing bad can get to you while you're at camp." He assures him, pressing small circles into his back with slow movements of his fingers. Nico resists the urge to completely break down in front of him because the dreams are becoming too much for him to handle. 

The next night, Nico has another nightmare. This one worse than any other previous. He thinks this one might actually be real. It feels so real.  

He's back in Tartarus, his body immediately recoils at the familiar surrounding.

_Nico tries to turn around, to find a way back up into his father's domain, but it's no use. He's stuck down here again._

_His skin is boiling, blisters form all over his skin from the acidic air, each leaving him with lengths of pain indescribable to anyone who hasn't experienced it themselves. Everything is dark, too dark. Nico starts to shake, his body taking over any rational thoughts left in him._

_He's running now, trying to escape from view of a few passing empousa. His face is burning, bits of sweat feeling more like acid than water. He can feel the tears forming in his eyes and he doesn't care to hide them now. His body can't endure the pain again. His mind can't either._

_He hides behind a large rock formation, now in excruciating pain. His skin is a million shades of red, and he feels trapped, unable to move or breathe._

_He starts panicking, body trembling, lungs heaving for air that doesn't give him any fresh oxygen._

_And then there's a giant around the corner, and it spots him. Nico closes his eyes, accepting his fate. He's crying as he does, but that also feels like acid on his cheeks._

_He opens his eyes to see the giant changing course. Standing in his path of sight are all of Nico's friends, all screaming in terror, unable to defend themselves as the giant takes them out one by one._

_"Nico!" he hears a voice cry out. It pains him to hear the sound of one of his friend's broken voice._

_"Guys!" He shouts but its no use, they're all gone._

Nico jolts up from his bed, breathing heavily, hands twisted in the fabric of his sheets, paler than he ever thought possible. His palms dig into his eyelids and he feels the water, the sweat and tears, and he realizes he's actually crying, and the tears are still falling. His back cracks against the force of sitting up against the wall next to his bed.

 Once his mind stops racing excessively, he remembers the terrified looks of his friends, the way they cowered in fear, unable to protect themselves. 

 Will. 

 His first thought is Will. He needs to make sure he's okay, that this really was just a dream. That his friends really didn't get taken in the middle of the night and sent to Tartarus.

 It's an irrational thought, he knows everyone's still safe at camp, but that's all he can think about right now and his mind isn't going to rest unless he makes sure that he's okay. 

He swings his legs over his bed, body shivering at the touch of the wooden floor beneath his feet, nearly toppling from his already shaking body. With a few steps, he wills himself to shadow-travel all the way to the Apollo Cabin.

 

***

 

Nico nearly trips over someone's feet when he reaches the cabin, their legs hang off their bed almost completely. He steps aside and makes his way to the back, careful to not hit anything in his path with only the dim light from the moon brightening the cabin. 

He clutches onto Will's bedpost with a shaky hand. He squints, hoping to see the familiar blonde curls he's come to love. 

He's surprised to see a pair of blue eyes staring into his. That only makes Nico's eyes water all over again. 

"Neeks," he whispers. Nico can see his eyebrows raise with light casting from the window.

Nico opens his mouth to respond. A small noise comes out instead. 

"Come here." Will opens his arms, beckoning for him. He wraps himself around his boyfriend, starting to cry again.

They stay like this for a while, Nico crying into the crook of his boyfriend's neck, holding in every hiccup or sound that threatens to escape his mouth out of fear it'll wake the others. Will holding him tightly, pressing his lips to the top of his boyfriend's head every once in a while to let him know that he's safe, nearly crying himself because he so deeply wishes he could take the pain from Nico, to never let him go again.

And it's simple gestures like this that remind Nico of how lucky he is to have Will. 

How thankful he is that Will is so compassionate, so willing to help him at any hour of the day. How he understands when Nico needs a few hours to himself, or when he says that but really means the opposite. How he doesn't push him to do anything he isn't comfortable with but pushes him when he knows it's something that will help. How sometimes he knows him better than Nico knows himself. How he's always there whenever he needs a shoulder to cry on or just to have someone in his presence. 

He doesn't deserve him. He truly doesn't deserve Will Solace.

But he thanks the fates every single day that he has him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Will whispers, tucking a strand of brown hair behind Nico's ear.

Nico shakes his head, a bit calmer than when he originally arrived. 

Will doesn't respond, understanding. He rubs his back instead. 

"My cabin," Nico hiccups, and Will nods, standing.

Nico doesn't dare shadow travel back to his cabin, not with the way Will reacted last time he overexerted himself. 

They walk in silence.

Nico reaches for Will's hand when they're about halfway there. Will gives his hand a little squeeze. He doesn't remove it until they're in his cabin, back in the bed that Nico wakes to every night, having to wonder if the dampness on his face is from sweat, tears, or a combination of the two. 

"I dreamt we were in Tartarus," Nico says, voice small, eyes squeezed shut.

He shuts down when he thinks about what it was like. Blocks out anything and anyone, especially when he thinks of the nights he spent wondering if he should give up, if it would be easier to surrender to the next gorgon or giant he comes in contact with than to continue suffering on his own with only thoughts of his friends pulling him through. 

"You did?" Will stares at Nico but doesn't reach for him, doesn't pull him closer or even attempt to pretend he can comprehend the amount of pain his boyfriend went through, and on his own too. 

Percy had Annabeth, and Annabeth had Percy. They had each other to keep them from giving up along the way.

Nico was all alone. And not a day goes by that Will wishes he could've been down there with him, to not only be a warm body to keep Nico attached to the real world above, but to help him get out before the voices got too unbearable, before he reached his breaking point.

Nico nods. "You and everyone else," his teeth graze his bottom lip. "I watched you all die."

There's a silence that follows. It's not long, but long enough to make it noticeable that something has shifted in the air, in their conversation. 

"And you came to me about it?" Will says, hesitation laced in his voice, in the way he swallows thickly after he stops speaking.

"I always come to you." Nico responds, and he means it. There is no one he would rather go to when things get hard. Even if he tends to keep things to himself, he always goes to Will when he does need someone. 

He says it so lightly, like he realizes the impact of his words, but doesn't care to reserve them from Will. The tenderness in each syllable still rings in Will's ears. He knows Nico loves him and he can get that from a five-worded sentence alone.

_I don't deserve you._

Will reaches out for Nico's hands in the dark. He laces their fingers together like they're the last two pieces of a puzzle falling into place, like this is the gods' way of letting them know that they're exactly where they're supposed to be. Together.

He kisses the soft flesh at the back of his hand, rubbing small circles with his thumb into the other.

_But I have you._

At this point, Nico sinks into Will, allowing himself to show his vulnerability as he breathes heavily into the crook of his neck. And it feels so natural, like this is something Will was born to do. Something Nico was destined to experience: a right-hand man, his other half, someone to be there for him when he can't be there for himself, to love him when he can't even love the face he sees staring back in his own reflection.

"I'm here for you." But Will doesn't need to say that aloud, for Nico already knows this, loves him dearly for it. 

_And I couldn't bear to be here without you._

He looks up at Will, dark eyes glistening with tears.

They stay silent for a few moments, eyes focused on each other and nothing else. Then Will loosens his grip on one of his boyfriend's hands, allowing it to travel up the curve of his jaw to rest against his cheekbone. 

Will hesitates momentarily, making sure Nico is okay--

He nods.

\--and he leans forward until their lips meet.

It's a single kiss, just long enough for Nico to register the contact, long enough for Will to show Nico how deeply and passionately he loves him. 

When they pull apart, Will rests his forehead on Nico's. 

"I love you," he whispers, eyes tentatively searching Nico's face for any changes. 

"And I love you," Nico whispers back, now laying flat on the bed, beckoning Will to do the same. He attaches himself to Will the second he lays down, like a koala hanging onto a tree, like he's trying to let Will protect him from the darkness. 

"Thank you," Nico says "For staying with me." he buries his head into Will's chest, twisting his body around restlessly until their limbs are well tangled to the point of it being extremely difficult to tell where he ends and Will begins.

"Anything for you, love." Will says, kissing the top of his head, doing the same with his hands and his cheeks, then wrapping his arms around him, allowing Nico to shut his eyes, enjoying the presence of his boyfriend.

They fall asleep not long after, Nico waking the next morning to a shining light, its arms hugging him tightly, and the sun, its rays desperately trying to break through the single window.

But there is only room for one beacon of light in Nico's life. His just happens to have blonde curls and an awful sense of humor.

Many more nights follow where the two have found themselves in the Hades Cabin, holding each other, shielding them from the harm of their own minds, or simply being in each other's presence.

Nico's nightmares become a rare occurrence now that he knows after all the fighting he's done, after all the people he's lost, that his life will not succumb to bad dreams and wishful thinking.

He has a home at camp now, a sister, a family, and most importantly, he has Will. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first part of a series of one-shots I've had saved in my drafts for months but haven't had the motivation to sit down and edit until now. I'll be posting these sporadically, unlike my ongoing klance [ fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18308798/chapters/43337156), which has set release dates.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed! Your feedback is important so leave a kudos and let me know how I'm doing!


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